It was amusing for a little while but it's less and less funny every day.

Something I've been going on and on about quite a bit lately is that all this mental illness is acquired -- it's the result of listening to the conservative media for decades and choosing to be outraged.

It's something I think most of us in here know already after having observed it in action for years and now the left-leaning media's starting to move closer to calling the other side out for making people unhinged. And if the angry people on the losing side don't calm the fark down real soon now, the rest of the media's going to take note of the phenomenon, too.

Couple days ago a Farker linked to a medical study showing a higher rate of death by heart attack and (I think) stroke among rabid American Football fans when their team loses the Super Bowl, predicting the same thing will happen as a result of Obama's win. If a.) someone actually looks for this effect and finds it and b.) it's widely reported, Limbaugh and the rest will have some explaining to do. All those early deaths will be on them...

Doc Daneeka:TFA: Ed. note: TPM decided not to include incidents where mental illness may have been a factor.

How do they distinguish mental illness from mainstream Republicanism?

By a distinct and observable thread of becoming a giant asshole. I wish I didn't know this for a fact. TL;DR dump of exhausted 'I have been dealing with this shiat for years now' coming, if you wanna scroll on.

My father was always a Reagan conservative but interested in progressive technology and power. This meant that, even though we were poor as hell, we were still one of the first families to get a Commodore and get into BBSs. He later made his own computers. Flashing forward into the current years, this interest in technology also meant he was on Facebook before me - and the FoxNews site, and Glocktalk, now one of the more infamous right wing echo chamber nuthouses. My father, a sweet and funny man with right wing tendencies has morphed over the last 4 years, after 30+ years of my knowing him, into a GIANT FLAMING ASSHOLE.

Racist Obama photoshops? Yep, they're on his facebook. Secessionist petitions for the state he lives in, despite the irony of his patriotism and troop support? Myep. Completely oblivious and hateful calls for the people who voted Obama (of which he damn well realizes his kid and their spouse did) to suffer doom and disaster? Oh yeah, those meme pics are there, too. Fark me, right?

This fringe right wing shiat has functionally killed whatever it was I knew in him. I wish I could find this tea party batshiat stuff funny. I wish he were just nuts.

KhamanV:This fringe right wing shiat has functionally killed whatever it was I knew in him. I wish I could find this tea party batshiat stuff funny. I wish he were just nuts.

I hear ya. My mother, who's Canadian fercrissake, was what I looked up to and respected and wanted to emulate as a young adult (despite being your typical insane Italian mother). Then she started watching the evening news. Now I kind of give the phone this slack-jawed stare whenever she busts out something so out-there rightwing that I simply don't know what to say. I'd assume she was senile, but she's only 57.

So... I don't have any good news for you. Just a "there, there" and a big confused shrug.

KhamanV:Doc Daneeka: TFA: Ed. note: TPM decided not to include incidents where mental illness may have been a factor.

How do they distinguish mental illness from mainstream Republicanism?

By a distinct and observable thread of becoming a giant asshole. I wish I didn't know this for a fact. TL;DR dump of exhausted 'I have been dealing with this shiat for years now' coming, if you wanna scroll on.

My father was always a Reagan conservative but interested in progressive technology and power. This meant that, even though we were poor as hell, we were still one of the first families to get a Commodore and get into BBSs. He later made his own computers. Flashing forward into the current years, this interest in technology also meant he was on Facebook before me - and the FoxNews site, and Glocktalk, now one of the more infamous right wing echo chamber nuthouses. My father, a sweet and funny man with right wing tendencies has morphed over the last 4 years, after 30+ years of my knowing him, into a GIANT FLAMING ASSHOLE.

Racist Obama photoshops? Yep, they're on his facebook. Secessionist petitions for the state he lives in, despite the irony of his patriotism and troop support? Myep. Completely oblivious and hateful calls for the people who voted Obama (of which he damn well realizes his kid and their spouse did) to suffer doom and disaster? Oh yeah, those meme pics are there, too. Fark me, right?

This fringe right wing shiat has functionally killed whatever it was I knew in him. I wish I could find this tea party batshiat stuff funny. I wish he were just nuts.

I feel like I lucked out. My father was going to vote for Romney but then he kept watching The Daily Show and found sanity.

HeartBurnKid:Citrate1007: #1 Actually a valid point; however, fark you job creators if you paid employees more they wouldn't turn to Uncle Sam to get their sons/daughters medical care.

No, it's not a valid point. Except for things like goodwill, businesses don't hire people out of the goodness of their hearts; they hire them to get jobs done. All cutting hours ends up doing is having less people do more work, which, if those people are already doing all they can, means work will go undone or be done inefficiently. If your first thought is "cut employee hours" or "fire people", you're shooting yourself in the foot. Your business is going to go under, and you're probably going to blame Obama for that too.

Cut employees hours further and hire additional people. Businesses that need skilled/trained workers will have to bite the bullet, but many businesses will attempt to avoid it. They'll spend more on HR departments constantly hiring/firing, training, scheduling, etc......but not all republicans are good at math.

The 64-year-old owner of a Tropical Tan salon in Key West, Fla., was "very upset about the election results," his partner Michael Cossey told police Officer Anna Dykes, according to the Keynoter. Prior to his death, the owner was reportedly "very stressed about his business." He told Cossey, "If Barack gets re-elected, I'm not going to be around."

The man was found dead in his bedroom on Nov. 8, according to the Keynoter. Empty prescription bottles were also found, one of which was Seroquel -- a drug used to treat bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia.

CorporatePerson:Republicans only love America when one of their own is president. Ever noticed how the party of American Exceptionalism has spent the past 4 years hating this country and everybody in it except for their fat friends who also hate everything about America as it stands today?

Correction: They don't believe that America is actually AMERICA when one of The Enemy (e.g. Dems) is president. They believe it becomes something else, something horrible and intolerable, and that it is up to them as True American Patriots to overthrow The Enemy and bring America back into existence.

Citrate1007:#1 Actually a valid point; however, fark you job creators if you paid employees more they wouldn't turn to Uncle Sam to get their sons/daughters medical care.

No, it's not a valid point. Except for things like goodwill, businesses don't hire people out of the goodness of their hearts; they hire them to get jobs done. All cutting hours ends up doing is having less people do more work, which, if those people are already doing all they can, means work will go undone or be done inefficiently. If your first thought is "cut employee hours" or "fire people", you're shooting yourself in the foot. Your business is going to go under, and you're probably going to blame Obama for that too.

Replace Puppet Showmen with Rupert Murdock, etc. etc. The lunacy was cultivated into a fertile market of derp. The biggest problem the Tea Partiers et. al. had/have is they willingly wanted more garbage to wade through, facts be damned, and the media responded like an aggressive pusher.

Critical thinking is your friend. Like a muscle, it has to be exercised. It's sad that that's seen as being 'liberal' nowadays.

But derp it up more, there's got to be an exit down this hole if we all push harder.

HeartBurnKid:Citrate1007: #1 Actually a valid point; however, fark you job creators if you paid employees more they wouldn't turn to Uncle Sam to get their sons/daughters medical care.

No, it's not a valid point. Except for things like goodwill, businesses don't hire people out of the goodness of their hearts; they hire them to get jobs done. All cutting hours ends up doing is having less people do more work, which, if those people are already doing all they can, means work will go undone or be done inefficiently. If your first thought is "cut employee hours" or "fire people", you're shooting yourself in the foot. Your business is going to go under, and you're probably going to blame Obama for that too.

An acquaintance is a Papa John's franchisee and so has some perspective on this particular situation - the franchise model is going to squeeze them.

If a franchisee has more than 50 employees, they'll be on the hook for subsidizing employee insurance. If this happened to all restaurants then prices would just go up across the board to compensate. But some will get hit with that, some won't, and PJ may or may not deign to allow them to raise prices.

A Florida man (pictured above) said he started to display the American flag upside down the day after the election because he believes "this country is in distress." Meanwhile, a man in Texas did the same. Both are veterans, but people in their towns have responded to the gestures with anger. The presentation is never permitted under U.S. Flag Code "except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."

Interesting, done by a member of the very Party whose members try and get people like war protesters arrested for doing the same thing. Funny thing is; These people don't smell their own hypocrisy. I guess they only "love" their flag when it's convenient...

shortymac:Yep, same here buddy. I think Fox News is just like Infowars, it just brainwashes the person with derp AND they stop even considering anything else. It's all a "conspiracy".

Does your Dad have some sort of other issue(s) too, I swear it got worse after not being diagnosed with Sleep Apnea for so long, I think it caused brain damage too. Also, the infowars nutter friends of mine have been diagnosed ...

Mine has had mild heart trouble in the past and one knee has been replaced with the other on its way. Good thing he has Medicare and his social security benefits to help out with that. Nothing mental; no depression or anything, though god knows I'm there.

My grandfather was a crazy ex-Navy RAH RAH AMERICA FARK BLACK PEOPLE (except this one dude who works for me, he's totally a good Black Person and not a neeeegira) stereotype so maybe it's genetic and setting in with age. It's Crazy Old White Man Itis, not to be confused with The Itis.

KhamanV:Doc Daneeka: TFA: Ed. note: TPM decided not to include incidents where mental illness may have been a factor.

How do they distinguish mental illness from mainstream Republicanism?

By a distinct and observable thread of becoming a giant asshole. I wish I didn't know this for a fact. TL;DR dump of exhausted 'I have been dealing with this shiat for years now' coming, if you wanna scroll on.

My father was always a Reagan conservative but interested in progressive technology and power. This meant that, even though we were poor as hell, we were still one of the first families to get a Commodore and get into BBSs. He later made his own computers. Flashing forward into the current years, this interest in technology also meant he was on Facebook before me - and the FoxNews site, and Glocktalk, now one of the more infamous right wing echo chamber nuthouses. My father, a sweet and funny man with right wing tendencies has morphed over the last 4 years, after 30+ years of my knowing him, into a GIANT FLAMING ASSHOLE.

Racist Obama photoshops? Yep, they're on his facebook. Secessionist petitions for the state he lives in, despite the irony of his patriotism and troop support? Myep. Completely oblivious and hateful calls for the people who voted Obama (of which he damn well realizes his kid and their spouse did) to suffer doom and disaster? Oh yeah, those meme pics are there, too. Fark me, right?

This fringe right wing shiat has functionally killed whatever it was I knew in him. I wish I could find this tea party batshiat stuff funny. I wish he were just nuts.

Yep, same here buddy. I think Fox News is just like Infowars, it just brainwashes the person with derp AND they stop even considering anything else. It's all a "conspiracy".

Does your Dad have some sort of other issue(s) too, I swear it got worse after not being diagnosed with Sleep Apnea for so long, I think it caused brain damage too. Also, the infowars nutter friends of mine have been diagnosed with mental illnesses too.

Hell, I live in Toronto now and the last time my Dad visited me he kept pointing out tan people and asking me if they we're muslims. No, I think they are farking Italian or maybe some kind of Spanish! Mr. Black-Irish-I-hate-everyone-thinking-I'm-an-Italian.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:Aidan: whizbangthedirtfarmer: Another woman decried the state of public education for "daring" to teach kids that George Washington was the first president, when "smart people" like her know there were seven or eight before him.

Okay so I mentioned this aloud at work, and the guy behind me (who's pretty smart but can get a little ahem Jesus-weird at times) said no she's right so then I went and looked it up.

I'll amend my response to "That's really fascinating and she has a point, but Washington was the first president of America As-She-Is. Hanson was the first President of the proto-America."

Also, I just wasted a ton of time on Wiki. :P

Yes, the president of Congress, who had no powers outside of calling meetings to order. It's a semantic game these folks play to throw you off balance and nothing more.

I hear ya. Judging from the vehemence of my co-worker I'm not going to mention that though... :P

Aidan:whizbangthedirtfarmer: Another woman decried the state of public education for "daring" to teach kids that George Washington was the first president, when "smart people" like her know there were seven or eight before him.

Okay so I mentioned this aloud at work, and the guy behind me (who's pretty smart but can get a little ahem Jesus-weird at times) said no she's right so then I went and looked it up.

I'll amend my response to "That's really fascinating and she has a point, but Washington was the first president of America As-She-Is. Hanson was the first President of the proto-America."

Also, I just wasted a ton of time on Wiki. :P

Yes, the president of Congress, who had no powers outside of calling meetings to order. It's a semantic game these folks play to throw you off balance and nothing more.

So... I don't have any good news for you. Just a "there, there" and a big confused shrug.

I feel like there's a lot of us going around looking kind of startled at what the hell happened to people they knew. Also, booze. So long as there is whisky, there is some fragment of hope.

You're telling me! I moved to America in February of '99. It seemed like the coolest, most awesome place to be. Then two and a half years later it got weird and creepy. I sometimes find myself staring at people thinking "The hell happened to you?! You used to be cool, man!"

(actually it was about 3 years later, since 9/11 was pretty scary/amazing for everyone)

How's this for a conspiracy story: Ron Paul is retiring from all of the bs rhetoric that he's had to deal with in congress.

Nope not a theory, and if anyone would upvote my link to his retirement video that I submitted yesterday, everyone else would farking know it too. Come on guys. It says Ron Paul in the headline, it shouldn't be hard to find.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:Another woman decried the state of public education for "daring" to teach kids that George Washington was the first president, when "smart people" like her know there were seven or eight before him.

Okay so I mentioned this aloud at work, and the guy behind me (who's pretty smart but can get a little ahem Jesus-weird at times) said no she's right so then I went and looked it up.

I'll amend my response to "That's really fascinating and she has a point, but Washington was the first president of America As-She-Is. Hanson was the first President of the proto-America."

"GOD HAS A BIGGER PLAN!," Klayman searched for divine interpretation of a second Obama term. A Romney victory, he wrote, would have deceptively led the Republican Party to the conclusion that "a Moses had appeared to deliver us out of the Egyptian-like bondage we find ourselves in - thanks to our 'Mullah in Chief' and his growing voter hoards of socialists, communists, anti-Semites, anti-Christians, atheists, radical gays and lesbians, feminists, illegal immigrants, Muslims, anti-Anglo whites and others who last Tuesday cemented his destructive hold on the White House and our country."

Uh, the dude was a Mormon. If you voted for Romney based on religious grounds and because you're a Christian, you voted for a man who is part of what Christianity calls a cult.

Jsin82:KhamanV: Doc Daneeka: TFA: Ed. note: TPM decided not to include incidents where mental illness may have been a factor.

How do they distinguish mental illness from mainstream Republicanism?

By a distinct and observable thread of becoming a giant asshole. I wish I didn't know this for a fact. TL;DR dump of exhausted 'I have been dealing with this shiat for years now' coming, if you wanna scroll on.

My father was always a Reagan conservative but interested in progressive technology and power. This meant that, even though we were poor as hell, we were still one of the first families to get a Commodore and get into BBSs. He later made his own computers. Flashing forward into the current years, this interest in technology also meant he was on Facebook before me - and the FoxNews site, and Glocktalk, now one of the more infamous right wing echo chamber nuthouses. My father, a sweet and funny man with right wing tendencies has morphed over the last 4 years, after 30+ years of my knowing him, into a GIANT FLAMING ASSHOLE.

Racist Obama photoshops? Yep, they're on his facebook. Secessionist petitions for the state he lives in, despite the irony of his patriotism and troop support? Myep. Completely oblivious and hateful calls for the people who voted Obama (of which he damn well realizes his kid and their spouse did) to suffer doom and disaster? Oh yeah, those meme pics are there, too. Fark me, right?

This fringe right wing shiat has functionally killed whatever it was I knew in him. I wish I could find this tea party batshiat stuff funny. I wish he were just nuts.

I feel like I lucked out. My father was going to vote for Romney but then he kept watching The Daily Show and found sanity.

It really is hard to separate mental illness from some strains of conservationism. Seriously, my father-in-law struggled with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. When he was on his meds, he was a devout liberal, a big fan of Clinton, and so on. When he went off his meds (before finally killing himself), he went whole hog into conservatism, proclaiming Reagan as being "right next to Jesus" and saying some of the most hateful things you could imagine.

Also, in my rural area, I find that a lot of the local Tea Party folks (who hang up signs about socialism and whisper and the "mooslim" in the White House) somehow believe that obsessive trivia facts make them a more knowledgeable person than the rest of the country. One woman told me her opinion was more valid because she could trace her lineage back to some guy in the American Revolution, so she could "channel" the beliefs of the Founding Fathers more easily. Another woman decried the state of public education for "daring" to teach kids that George Washington was the first president, when "smart people" like her know there were seven or eight before him.

Of course, probably the closest I got to punching someone was at the July Fourth parade, where a group of Tea Partiers were marching along. One of them stopped in front of my kids, and, literally, inches away from their faces, YELLED, "HAVE YOU READ THE CONSTITUTION?" They were six and four at the time, and though both can read, I don't think the Constitution takes precedence over puppies and fart jokes. When I told the guy that, he said I was raising socialist, ignorant kids and his kids would be their boss in the future.

Still, the guy from Harlot Handlem Hamlin Hardin county, one of 254 counties in Texas (almost in Louisiana), doesn't call any shots with anyone, is called Texas GOP Official. officially calling for secession.

That's media BS even a Yellow Dog Democrat can see through.

Texans like to fall asleep to dream they are residents of a nation that is separate but really good friends with the US, kinda like Liechtenstein and Switzerland, only on a much larger scale.

Republicans only love America when one of their own is president. Ever noticed how the party of American Exceptionalism has spent the past 4 years hating this country and everybody in it except for their fat friends who also hate everything about America as it stands today?

1. Yep, this would be a dick move, though it isn't like big corporations and business don't fire people with no more purpose than to push up their stock value a quarter of a point anyway.

2. Bury it 'at the ranch'? Morons. Bank. Deposit. Box.

3. Conservatives are racist docuhebags? Getouttahere.

4. Yes, because the arch-socialist agenda can only happen in the years 2013-16, and not a day before. Morons.

5. Um.... no. You are not the Jews in Egypt. The Jews, I suspect, would like to have a word with y'alls crazy racist bullshiat anyway, all the more so in taking their thunder.

6. Y'all tried this crap last time. Not going to happen. As much as we would have no issue seeing 'some' states magically disappear (Mississippi I'm looking in your direction), you're stuck with us. Deal with it.